As Hollywood slashes spending, nobody has felt the brunt as much as movie producers

LOS ANGELES—They still sit on the northern edge of the Universal Pictures lot—symbols of an era when producers were the kings of Hollywood.

The Tuscan-style villa covered in ivy, with balconies and a fountain in an interior courtyard, was built to fit the tastes of Robert Zemeckis, the writer and producer of "Back to the Future" and "Forrest Gump." A huge, white modernist structure housed Ivan Reitman, who made "Ghostbusters" and "Dave." A blue Cape Cod house with Adirondack chairs...